Color Theory: Purple

Purple

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.”

— Alice Walker

Purple is a quirky color.

It is the color that occurs least often in nature. And unlike violet (its slightly blue-er counterpart), it exists in culture and art, but not in optics. It does not have its own wavelength of light, and only exists as a combination of the red and blue spectrums. Perhaps because of this, purple is the hardest color for the eye to distinguish.

It has also, historically, been a hard color to reproduce. In ancient times, there was a deep, rich dye made from a snail that became known as Tyrian purple. It had a very involved process that yielded very small amounts, making it the most rare and expensive of colors for clothing. For perspective, when a German chemist tried to recreate this dye in 2008, he needed 12,000 snails to create just 1.4 ounces of dye, only enough to color a handkerchief. !!! Naturally, royals and rulers the world ’round adopted it as their color, as a status symbol. When mankind first ventured into synthetic dyes, purple was the first shade created (mauveine, aka, mauve). It’s never quite lost its ties to luxury and wealth, though. Take a look at any set of poker chips: purple is the color of the highest denomination chip.

Negative

Purple also happens to be my favorite color: a nice, deep aubergine, to be exact. But, because that wasn’t a good fit for my business (I don’t specialize in luxury businesses or spirituality, for instance), I reserve it for my personal use and not my studio branding. My phone case is purple. So is my laptop skin. I write in my freelance planner in purple ink. My dog’s collar is a nice plum. I strongly considered buying a car this color, but Hyundai had discontinued the shade I liked. You get the picture. 🙂

From freelance designer to studio owner, I've been a self-employed, independent graphic designer for over a decade. I love helping people find the right visual voice for their businesses and projects. Let's talk!